February 15 - 19

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston did some more geography work this week.  He learned about the British Aisles.  We haven't made the recipe from that unit yet.  Perhaps that will happen this week.  :)   

Preston also made a cute Thank You note using pastels for the art portion of his language arts' assignment this week.  This is definitely not his favorite kind of art, but it's so sweet that he follows along with the assignments without complaint.  

MARISSA

Marissa was working on compound words in her language arts book this week.  She chose 4 different compound words to draw as separate words and then draw once they are combined.  It turned out really cute!

CALEB

Caleb's focus right now is reading.  He still completes writing and math assignments regularly, but we are really working on helping him gain some fluency and confidence with his reading.  He was so pleased with himself when he realized he could read "Go Dog Go" with only a little bit of help from me or Preston.  

OTHER

HISTORY

We read a fun book for history this week.  It was called "Six Dots" and is the story about how braille was developed by a blind child named Louis Braille.  It was a very inspiring story, and fun to learn the patterns of dots that make up each letter of the alphabet.  

SNOW

With all the crazy weather we've had, we made time to at least get out and go sledding on a small hill at a park near our home. The kids had a blast!

February 8 - 12

 WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's been working on lots of things for language arts this week.  He has had practice with diagramming sentences, editing a paragraph.  He also learned a lot about geography and reading maps as part of his language arts studies.  

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing this week was poetry.  We watched a little Winney the Pooh clip about rhyming and poetry.  She disappeared to her room and came back with this poem she wrote all by herself.  

CALEB

Caleb loves math!  This week, he spent some time reviewing timed math facts for addition, subtraction and multiplication with Imagine Math Facts.  He also has been doing several lessons on MathSeeds every week.  Right now, he's working on time and figuring it out quickly!

Caleb also had a great time writing words that rhyme on the chalkboard while Marissa wrote her Valentine love poem.  

OTHER

VALENTINE'S DAY FUN

Marissa and Caleb were so excited to decorate the house, make Valentine's and decorate Valentine's Day boxes.  We didn't have a party to go to this year, but they still wanted to do something fun.  They created a Shopkins' box and a Mario box without any help from anyone.  So amazing! 

Valentine boxes Marissa made ALL BY HERSELF

Valentine surprise from grandma and grandpa

Heart waffles for breakfast Marissa and Caleb helped make for the family

Treats from mom and dad

 

February 1 - 5

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's been working really hard on Khan Academy math.  He is getting better and better at understanding fractions.  He just finished multiplication and now is learning to divide fractions.  It's been fun to watch Marissa with her math work as well since it has included a lot of fraction and early algebraic skills as well.  It's fun for the kids to see how they already understand the basics and the problems just get more complex as you learn more.  We like to throw in some game math once in awhile at our house.  This week, it was chess.  Preston won...but barely.  Caleb is catching up to his siblings in skill and I won't be surprised if he's beating everyone in the next year or two.    

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing was putting together her Doodle Crate.  It was basket weaving.  She got to die the material (yellow, blue and purple) and then weave the baskets into different shapes.  She had a great time and is now using them for holding pencils and a marble game.  

CALEB

Caleb's favorite thing this week was finishing the 3rd Dick and Jane book.  He earned a Lego Star Wars set to put together and add to the growing collection.  His reading is improving and his Lego building skills are incredible!  

OTHER

ART

One day the kids were really excited about art so we had whole afternoon of drawing cartoon characters.  Caleb decided he wanted to draw characters for a video game he wants to create in the future so he did that instead.  ;)

Preston's character named Spike that we learned to drawn from a YouTube tutorial

Other characters he experimented with drawing

Marissa's drawing

Marcos is her dad.  Here's her drawing of him :)

Another random character she chose to draw

Preston's character

He's a magical creature named "Trike"

He added scenery to his drawing

This is "Goblin"

He's an evil warrior

SCIENCE

Marissa busted out her "Sci Girls" science kit this week and did a few experiments.  Fizzing lemonade and distraction glitter bombs are two of the things she was working on.  She loved it! 

January 25 - 29

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing this week was finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  He was so excited to finish the whole series.  The order of his favorites goes like this.  First, Goblet of fire; second, Half Blood Prince; third, Deathly Hallows; fourth, Chamber of Secrets; Fifth, Prisoner of Azkaban; Sixth, Sorcerer's Stone; and Lastly, Order of the Phoenix.  

The next series on his list to read is the Percy Jackson series.  

MARISSA

Marissa is loving her new math book.  It is colorful and for the most part, she is able to work on it without a lot of help or instruction.  She likes math, but really doesn't like working on the computer or iPad very much so we've been on the lookout for a fun workbook that would be good for her.  

CALEB

Caleb's favorite thing this week was Musikgarten class.  They finished up their study of American Indians by making a totem pole with each child adding their animal.  Caleb's animal is called "Strong Gorilla" with all sorts of powers and abilities.  They got to eat popcorn, nuts and seeds and corn chips to learn about the different foods that Native Americans from different parts of the American continent ate and how they lived.  He had a lot of fun with this unit!

OTHER

BEAR LAKE

The kids got lots of extra PE time in this week with our weekend trip to Bear Lake.  Preston and Marissa got to ride a snowmobile with their dad and all three kids spent hours in the swimming pool and sledding down a huge hill.  It was a blast and great to get out of town for a few days!